London: India captain Virat Kohli and his Australian counterpart Aaron Finch are not amused by the flashing LED bails that glow at being hit, making the TV umpires’ job a shade easy, but do not come off a lot of times much to the bowlers’ dismay.
There have been close to 10 occasions during the ongoing World Cup when the ball has hit the stumps but bails haven’t come off. The reason being cited is their weight as there are a lot of wires inside to ensure they glow on being hit.
Australia have suffered at least five times and skipper Finch is expectedly fuming and called it ‘unfair’.
Asked if it’s an issue, Kohli was a bit more restrained and said: “Definitely. I mean, this is not something which you expect at the international level.”
“I think with the technology it’s great. The lights come on and you know it’s very precise when you actually make something happen with the stumps. But you literally have to smash the stumps really hard, and I’m saying that as a batsman,” the skipper laughed while answering the question.
What has surprised Kohli is the fact that even the quick bowlers are not able to dislodge the bails as it happened when Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled to David Warner.
“If I see something happening like that, I’d be very surprised, also. And these are fast bowlers. These are not your medium-paced bowlers.
“I don’t know, and MS (Dhoni) said we checked the stump hole, as well. The stump was not in very hard, it was actually loose. So I don’t know what’s actually wrong with the stump, the outer coating of the stump,” the skipper said.
What irked the Indian skipper is that good balls may end up not fetching a wicket.
“I am sure no team would like seeing stuff like that when you actually bowl a good ball and then you don’t get the guy out. The ball hits the stump and the lights don’t come on, or the lights come on and the bail comes back on to the stump. I haven’t seen that happen so many times in the past,” the skipper said.
Even his Aussie counterpart found it hard and unfair.
“Yeah, I think so. It wasn’t — we were on the right end of it today, but I think going forward, you want — it’s a bit unfair at times, isn’t it. And I know David was — hit the stumps pretty hard,” Finch said.
“But it does seem to be happening more and more, which is unfortunate, because you’d hate to see something like that happen in a World Cup final or a semifinal…you’ve done the hard work as a bowler or a fielding side to set a player up or get the mistake and it not be rewarded,” Finch spoke about his apprehensions.
Lighter bails is the way out, feels Bhuvneshwar.
“All I know is that bails should be lighter so that when I hit the stumps, it comes off,” he laughed.
PTI